Tom Thibodeau spent seven years as an assistant coach with the Knicks, mostly under Jeff Van Gundy. Jeff Nix was with New York when Thibodeau was on the bench. Nix also worked with Thibodeau in Minnesota.
So he has a qualified perspective on the new Knicks coach.
Nix and Thibodeau used to spend long nights at the team’s Westchester practice site (then at SUNY Purchase), heading to Kinkos before the start of training camp to put together the Knicks’ playbook.
“Crazy times,” Nix says.
Below, Nix talks about Thibodeau’s approach to coaching, the kind of player who thrives under Thibodeau, and how his approach off the court may surprise you:
THIBODEAU’S APPROACH AS AN ASSISTANT
“He’s very disciplined, very organized, bases a lot of stuff through precision. Everything has to be perfect. I think all the (Knicks) players embraced that (when Thibodeau was an assistant) – that’s part of winning. Everybody wants to win but you’ve also got to be willing to work to win and Tom is a work-to-win guy. The players that he coaches – if they’re willing to put the work in and willing to show a commitment to winning, then those are the guys that are going to play.
“He’ll start (instructing his teams) on the lowest basic level of basketball. Sometimes you might feel like you’re being coached in high school. But players who want to work to win buy in to that. And want to do it because it’s going to eventually make them better. I just think today, a lot of players think the minuscule stuff is above them. That’s why you find mistake players. And Tom wants to eliminate mistakes.
“….Tom expects perfection and any player that doesn’t want someone to expect them to be good and expect them to exceed what they even think they can do, then it might not be the right fit. But that’s not Tom’s fault. That would be the player’s fault. I would embrace a coach that is so engaged and wants to win and wants me to learn and wants me to be a better player. That’s all Tom wants to do.
“His results over time, he’s had great success. It hasn’t resulted in championships but it’s certainly resulted in turning franchises around. I think coaches around the league respect that. They know how hard it is to do that. Sometimes it’s even harder to do it the way it’s set up currently with so many young players.”